The lines in a narrow spectrum fall so closely together that they cannot be critically examined; but when more than one prism is used and the spectrum by this means spread out widely, the dark lines are made to stand apart.  They are then found to number many thousands.  We speak now of the analysis of sunlight.  Experimentation was naturally turned, however, to terrestrial gases and solids on fire, and it was found that these also produce like series of dark lines in the spectrum.  Or when the substances are consumed as solids, then the spectral effects are reversed, and the lines that would be dark lines in the luminous colored spectrum become themselves luminous lines on the screen; but these lines hold the same relation in mathematical measurement, etc., as do the dark lines in the colored spectrum.

Skillful spectroscopists succeeded in detecting and delineating the lines that were peculiar to each substance.  By burning such substances in flame, they were able to produce the lines, and thus verify results.  By such experimentation the various lines present in the solar spectrum were separated from the complex result, and the conclusion was reached that in the burning surface of the sun certain substances well known on earth are present; for the lines of those substances are shown in the spectrum.

No other known substances would produce the given lines.  The conclusion is overwhelming that the substances in question are present in a gaseous condition in the burning flames of the sun.  Down to the present time the examination of the sun’s atmosphere has shown the existence therein of thirty-six known elements.  These include sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, cobalt, silver, lead, tin, zinc, titanium, aluminium, chromium, silicon, carbon, hydrogen and several others.

It was thus established that in the constitution of the sun many of the well-known elements of the earth are present.  There could be no mistake about it.  An identity of lines in such a case proved beyond dispute the identity of the substance from which such lines are derived.  The existence of common materials in the central sphere of our system and in one of his attendant orbs—­our own—­could not be doubted.  The discovery of such a fact led by immediate inference to the expectation and belief that the other planets were of like constitution, or in a word, that the whole solar system was essentially composed of identical materials.

As the inquiry proceeded, it was found, however, that the agreement in the lines of different spectra was not perfect.  Lines would be found in the spectrum derived from one source that were not present in a spectrum derived from another source.  Materials were therefore suggested as present in one body that were not present in another.  Still further inquiry confirmed the belief that while there is a general uniformity in the materials of our solar system, the